Motivation

Motivation, by which the needs of a person give rise to behaviour, is one of the most important but complex concepts in the management of personnel. Motivation forms the basis of people’s performance and relation to one another. This is a force which extends across every single functional area, from original selection through training, development, supervision, wage and salary, administration and labour relations.

5.2. Much of our managerial policy and practice has been based on such assumptions as:-

5.2.1. The average human-being has an inherent dislike of work and will avoid it if he can.

5.2.2. Because of this human characteristic of dislike of work, most people must be coerced, controlled, directed, threatened with punishment to get them to put forth adequate effort toward the achievement of organizational objectives.

5.2.3. The average human-being prefers to be directed, wishes to avoid responsibility, has relatively little ambition, wants security above all.

5.3. In fact, generally, a man wants to work and derives great satisfaction from productive concentration of his energies. If this reality is accepted the managerial problem becomes one of reconciling the Employee’s objectives in that respect with the organization’s objectives. I shall describe factors of human behaviour which play an important role in building up of motivation.

5.3.1. Varying Needs Individuals acquire motives which vary in type, number and intensity from person to person. Even if people have common motives arising out of similar situations, the degree of feeling and reaction to that feeling will vary. Intensity or strength of need in different people is difficult to measure. Needs vary with different educational, occupational and social groups, for instance, independence is most strongly desired by lower and middle income groups, whereas social approval is most valued by those in higher income brackets. Business, professional and white-collar personnel more frequently want self-expression and interesting experiences.

5.3.2. Appreciation as Incentive Praise and encouragement are useful incentives but are often over-rated. A general limitation in their usefulness lies in the meager opportunities for genuine reward of these types in day-to-day work situations. Praise well given meets need for self esteem in general and for achievement in particular. The manner of praising or encouraging affects its perception. A perfunctory “Nice Work”, gushing and carefully measured words indicating some reservation can all dull the resultant feelings in the Employees. Warmth, expressed satisfaction, and well-chosen words that can be repeated serve to increase the sense of accomplishment and the pleasure in recognition.

5.3.3. Confidence and Faith Demonstrating confidence and general belief in an Employee satisfies important needs for security and for the approval of one’s Supervisor. Knowing that the pervisor is demonstrating overall confidence can offset unpleasant criticism and make the Employee want to improve. Un-tempered criticism on the other hand leaves him with little but discouragement or distaste.

5.3.4. Employee Participation

5.3.4.1. Participation motivates increased effort in the Employees at any level. It appeals to their higher needs. Where real and meaningful, it increases self-esteem and a feeling of obtaining the respect of others. For participation to be of value, however, the Employee must be part of a worthwhile project and must know that the project succeeded partly because of his ability.

5.3.4.2. In any group, large or small, a number of people have interests and needs in common. Their activity in relation to such shared interests is participation. Where the participation involves the quest for ideas and suggestions from members of a group, the basic premise is that there is no monopoly on ideas. Different people, with differing backgrounds, have contributions to make. The fact that management personnel have technical proficiency, superior education, or even greater intelligence does not eliminate the possibility of error. Participation of subordinates who know and work with particular processes or equipment can help forestall such error.

5.3.4.3. By involving groups in activities of concern to management, it is possible to provide satisfaction to the subordinates by making them feel a part of what is going on and by giving them a sense of sharing in endeavours that are worthwhile to all concerned.

5.3.5. Driving and Threat Telling the employees to “step on it” or “get with it”, generally in an impatient, peremptory manner, is a negative approach; the implication is that the Supervisor is displeased and that the Employees are not doing what they should. Words and expressions of this order have the same effect, figuratively, as cracking a whip. Some Employees become used to them and move faster. In others such driving arouses defiance, and the result is passive resistance. Where the Supervisors resort to driving tactics, it is generally because they lack resourcefulness and believe that the only way to get people to work is to stand over them.

5.3.6. Failure How much an Employee will try, how much he will think, how much he will put into learning, development, and his job are matter of motivation. One of the queries now being raised is whether providing satisfaction for workers results in high level of productivity? Business and industry have largely failed in motivating the Employees toward increased effort. One explanation is that motivation within the job, necessary to improve performance is lacking. Most of the organizations including industry, both at rank and file, and managerial levels, offer little chance for the operation of the motivators. Jobs are atomized, cut and dried, monotonous.

5.3.7. Money Incentive Motivation varies with environment and conditions of life. When the most basic human physical needs like food and water, sexual gratification, protection from bodily harm, are not being met, these become important areas in which incentives may operate. A man dying of thirst in the forest would do anything in his power for a drink; but under conditions where he knows his thirst can always be readily quenched, the drive for liquid fades into the background. Similarly, in a poor society where standards of satisfaction of human physical wants are low, the need to purchase a higher scale of satisfaction, namely income becomes paramount.

5.3.8. Morale and Management Behaviours Incentives may arise from the Supervisor, the job itself, environmental aspects of the job and other rewards derivable from the job. Morale has a special role to play in it. Pay may rank second or third and sometimes lower on the scale of morale factors. Ahead of it are such factors as credit and recognition, challenging work, a congenial work-ground, freedom of decision making, security of tenure, fair and equal opportunity for advancement, and the last but not the least the quality of supervision. Certainly in those organizations in which there is no apparent rationality underlying compensation and reward, it would be pretty difficult to achieve high morale or motivation; where promotions are made on some basis other than merit, respect for one’s Supervisor is not likely to be very high; and where performance is evaluated perfunctorily or unfairly, there is not very fertile soil for development of genuine “espirit de corpse”. In broad sense, therefore, the inculcation of that spirit, that state of mind, which expresses itself in loyalty, enthusiasm, co-operation, pride in service , and devotion to duty, is the end of whole personnel system.

5.3.9. Goal Orientation Organization’s goals become incentives when they appeal to the Employee’s needs, when the Employee can see his connection with achieving those goals, and when he understands how he can help reach them. All too often an individual Employee feels that the organization must have clear goals and there may be a clear path toward them, but has no clear picture of its goals, of the paths leading to them and of his role in reaching them. So it is that he feels a strong attraction to his fellow workers; he is strongly group oriented; the group has power over him. This motivational force has been largely lost to management, which has over-stressed its own conception of goals.

5.3.10.Ways of Working with Motivation

5.3.10.1. Attitude is important in motivational considerations. There is a strong need for re-organizing the magnitude of difference in manipulating men and things. Moreover, Supervisors still have difficulty in realizing that their values and goals are often quite different from those of their Employees. In this connection, it is important to motivate through “joint endeavour to solve common or shared problems”, rather than use of shrewdness, maneuver and undercover measures that are manipulative.

5.3.10.2. Organizational needs should have top priority in the Supervisor’s book, but they involve both organization as a mechanism and management as people. Only through proper motivation it is possible to maximize the Employee performance relative to organizational goals at any level.

5.3.10.3. Factors of motivation are so varied that to use any one factor to motivate a group is a costly and, by its very nature, a “hit and run” affair. Running organization in such a manner that it evokes the interest, the satisfaction and even the enthusiasm of the Employees is by no means a simple task. Certainly, it is not an objective that can be achieved through application of a fixed set of criteria or rules. Just as individuals differ widely, so do situations. But an appreciation of fundaments or generally applicable principles can usually help. One of these principles is that of management by winning consent as distinguished from management by mere command. This is frequently referred to as democratic management. Some would go so far as to question that enduring achievement is ever reached by rigid, unyielding, absolute orders. Although certainly, it cannot be denied that much work is accomplished in this way, but experimentation has proved that more and better work is usually performed by enlisting the whole-hearted participation of a group in working towards a common end. In the final analysis, by paying a man a wage, all we can buy is his physical presence at a specific job for a given number of hours. We can no more guarantee his loyalty and his operating at his full productive potential by agreeing to pay him a wage than one can guarantee a satisfactory marriage relationship by buying a marriage license.

5.3.10.4. Fair pay, good working conditions, and sound administrative practices are no doubt a basic requirement. What motivates the Employees to work effectively ? A challenging job which allows a feeling of achievement, responsibility, growth, advancement, enjoyment of work itself and earned recognition. The fact of the matter is that we can no longer buy people if we ever could. Even in the days of slave trade, it is doubtful whether the owner of a slave bought anything more than the title deed on another man.

5.3.11. It is, however, a mistake to take any one factor and give it undue importance. The state of motivation or demotivation may arise from an unpredictable combination of factors. However, the most common motivating factors, as already explained, are:

5.3.11.1. Achievement

5.3.11.2. Recognition

5.3.11.3. Prospects of Advancement

5.3.11.4. Responsibility

5.3.11.5. Peer Relations 5.3.11.6. Competence of Supervision

5.3.11.7. Opportunities for Growth

5.3.11.8. Company Policy and Administration

5.3.11.9. Pay